


Eveily and the Snek

by Wranglis_Disorder



Category: Filly Funtasia (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:28:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29575350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wranglis_Disorder/pseuds/Wranglis_Disorder
Summary: A lamia and an alraune meet in the most unlikely of circumstances.





	Eveily and the Snek

OUT FROM THE MAGICAL MEADOWS

Evelyn was hopping with a bounce in their hoof. It had been a long day out in the meadows but now was time for a return to the woods they called home. The Mystical Forest was not a friendly place for fillies, but it was what Evelyn called a spot close to the heart. Warm lucid springs, mysterious trees that bore strange carvings of no explanations, and a variety of flocking and fluttering wildlife, mostly small birds and squirrels but also some more curious creatures sometimes.

The magical maze had been different this time. Rather than the usual set of mysterious clues leading to a prize, say, of fruit in a basket, or some lumber for a fireplace, there had been just pages, looking as if they were torn from a book.

What was up with that?

Not to think about it too much or too long, the young hermit had decided nonetheless to save these pictures and texts, or at least most of them, into some sort of scroll. A compact, well-collected appendium of all these tricks and codes. What was it trying to say? While quite bright, Evelyn wasn’t a scholar by any means, simply picking up forgotten relics and studying them for fun while out in the woods or the grasslands. As far as they knew, this island was mostly uninhabited.

Well, until now, anyway. Something had clearly changed.

It was actually quite a distance between the maze area’s edges and the shadowy enclaves that defined the entrance to the forest Eveily called home. Hopefully no getting lost today like the last time...these parts were confusing with the giant trunks, unexpected jutting rocks...best be careful so as to not drop anything, especially the mirror. And what was in the backpack, also important. Best just walk slowly, one wrong step could mean a trip and a short but unpleasant fall.

Evelyn, or Eveily, was a unique creature, despite being really an ordinary filly. Having been born abandoned in the cottage that remained their home till this day, they had never met their parents, or known what fate had befallen from. Yet Eveily was a clever filly and knew very well their parents were fillies, even if aside their reflection in streams and crystals of caves they had never seen another such form out here.

In fact, that was not the only way Eveily was unique. They had been raised by wildcat beests and coyotes who had been friendly to them, and showed them how to be civilized, how to have family, and to understand and play and work with one another. Of course, being a different species, there were barriers and obstacles, but Eveily had overcome these and somehow didn’t seek to know what type of filly they were, or if there were even other fillies out there and not just them alone.

And it went on. Eveily had a power that seemed to scare their family of canines and felines to no end - they could sprout parts of plants from anywhere on their body, be it vines, or tendrils, or bushes, or leaves, or even funguses sometimes. It was a strange gift, a way to blend in with the nature from any danger there might ever be, although to this point there had been none but these scripts presented elsewise -

\- Oof. That was a close one. Almost snagged on that root. Best stop thinking and keep marching. Retracting all the branches they had pulled out from their torso, the solitary filly marched on to home, gingerly and focused with clarity to solve a mystery that meant so much more.

THE FOREST ISN’T BAD TO ALL

Lestriuh was always a bit different. Where it began was about as interesting as where it ended. Two front hooves firmly planted on the ground, they began climbing along the trees of the Mystic, taking in the evening fog and enjoying every bit of it. A crow soared by overhead, and another, darker, bird turned to stare at them with bright gold and glowing eyes. Perhaps a night-flyer, or a grumosk, those were becoming more common in these parts.

Lestriuh was always trying to get their mind off of these troubles, strange creatures not familiar to them. It was awkward to walk like this, the front half of their body touching cold earth and the rest pointed towards the sky, but if anything should happen, this was the safest way to navigate the terrain. To stay in only the trees would be to cross from specimen to specimen and pine to spruce to elm vulnerably, as well as the weight issue. Meanwhile going on the ground was a trap for all the dark and hidden caves in the surface that could lead almost anywhere in here.

Lesti had gone down there once and had regretted the every turn. Such grottoes presented so many untold and unfound horrors. It was honestly best not to think about it, at all if possible. They had even seen some creature whose nature was unexplained and ambiguous, but gave a sense of dread to every inch of their velvety skin and stood their fur and scales on end.

Scales, hmm.

It was so nice to forget sometimes. While being of this figure and shape was a joyous thing itself, to live alone out here was scary, and being a unique creature with no one to hide and no one to relate to, was sad and unpleasant. But there were at least the closest counterparts. The deep lake out towards the falling sun would lead to merfillies for sure, and there were normal snakes and fillies among the land, although all were perplexed and stopped not long to say hi. This was what it was to be different, and while Lesti understood full well how some creatures could love one another from such different backgrounds, it was odd still to think that an entire race of fellow snake-fillies could live and exist and breathe and celebrate a culture and life out there, in some unknown distance beyond the extents of this woods and maybe of this whole island.

Did some portal lead to the lamia world, that being the name Lesti was told snek-fils were to be given for their laminated fur and soft features? Or was something else at play in this name?

It was quite a real mystery.

The point was not to learn the truth, but to learn to move past it. Accepting and all. It had been a long day out, and the way home was clear, to the burrow of the great oak that had been a comfort to Lesti since they were young, having lived with the likes of lizards, then raccoons, and eventually those wild new rodents and the bears that co habited with them.

It was another time and another day when these truths would be learned, but still. It was something to hope for, and to imagine out there.

CROSSWAYS AT THE CROSSROAD

But Evelyn had never met Lestriuh or any other lamia, for that matter. They had lived in the same general area, had taken the same paths that crisscrossed and zigzagged past one another like a deta of worn and trodden hay and soil, yet they’d never laid eyes on one another, except maybe spooky distant figures in the night when out too late. Tonight was one such night.

“Oh!” Eveily cried, realizing that what they had stepped on was not a root of some other giant taiga tree or an unsuspecting jungle amazon, but a live and mobile creature, a reptilian or maybe amphibian of some sort. Was it a snake?

“Hello there”, Lestriuh began, “Please don’t be scared, I don’t bite”.

Eveily could for a moment only stare at the profound creature before them.

“I know fillies tend to be frightened by fellows like me, but I assure you I’m quite harmless, really! Unless you want me not to be…” and Lesti recounted times where that had happened.

“I’m sorry, it’s just...I’ve never met a creature even close to how I look like”, Evie began. They realized how their voice sounded different now. Since leaving their pack and tribe to live further out in the warmer cottage with more space, there had been no need to talk, no familiar friendly animals around. Evie did not recognize their own voice anymore.

“I’ve yet to meet a lamia like my myself, but snakes and fillies are common sights...fillies out here, not so much though. Are you lost?” Lest continued.

“I- fillies, right? That’s what I am? Hey, is this normal for a filly, because I don’t know”, and Eve spouted out a long twisting tentacle at Les’s side.

“No, that’s quite a rare trait and ability, perhaps rarer so than speaking with animals”, Les replied. “But I rather like it, it’s way you and I both have a shaky tail so to say”, with an awkward smile they finished.

“Are you on your way home?” Eve began. “I can accompany you, maybe, if it’s not too far off from where I am”.

“I live just a few minutes’ walk over from here. In one of the many hollows and dugouts in the woods. Would you like to come visit? They’re quite cozy, I can assure you of that. Better than what else is out here, anyway”.

“Actually I have a cottage to my own just a bit off from here as well. Funny how we’ve never met!”

“Well. The woods is a large and dark place, isn’t it, dear. I suggest you come out here late in the morning and late in the evening as with now if you wish to find me out side, else I get too cold at my lower half and then that’s no good”.

“I usually come out early and go home early to safely gather fruits and supplies for my hut, but I can come out later, if that’s better.”

“Oh, what’s your name? What do we call each other?”

“My parents left me a note saying my name is Evelyn, or Eveily or just Eve. It was the only thing I have from them in that home. I wish I knew what happened to them”.

“Same story here, really. I’ve been told by passing wildlife and seen it in sketches that I am Les, short for Lest, and shorter that for Lestriuh in turn”.

“We should meet again, and call each other by our names”.

“Yes, we should”.

And so in the dark, they scattered and went off to their separate abodes on their own ways of life, before the bats and owls and shadows of the night would settle in and make the place unsafe.

IT’S SAID THAT FATE HAS A WAY

A few days later, the two ran into each other again. This time, it was earlier in the day, just a bit before noon really, maybe two hours back, and they looked on each other better this time, taking in each other’s details and features.

Eve was a tall and yet stout filly, a violent purple mane onto violet hair and a dark pink body that gave way to red underfolds. Like a foreign but fresh fruit. It wasn’t immediately clear where they hailed from in the lands of the Fillies, but something about their earthly design could give hints towards a regal form.

Meanwhile, Les was a deep blue lamia, shades of angry green, brown, and indigo, striking onto a grey mane and hair, on a musty skin and scales that flickered in these colours but mostly stayed lapis, like an underwater beast. With long hair, it was hard to see their eyes, which were actually quite plain if somewhat reptilian, no glowing or anything scary like that, Eve thought.

The two glanced at each other and stared for the longest time, not used to seeing other creatures of their ranks out here.

Eve was the first to ask, “So how come you’ve never left out for your home, to find more lamias or at least other … well, more civilized peoples and places to be with?”

“Why haven’t you”, was the simple and cold deflection.

“I’m...well, I’ve done bad things”, Eve explained. Eve had not wanted to bring this up but it had become necessary to set lines early on with this stranger, especially if they were to be peacefully neighbours. Or something.

“You’ve done bad things? To whom, the trees? The fauna, the flora? Or have you met other lamias, and that’s why they ran off, heh?”

“Rude”.

“Seriously though, have you not met other fillies or merfillies or anyone out here, perhaps?”

“No”, but Eve had and was doing their best to block the memory.

It was so strange to see a creature standing, well, coiling and lying at their head level height, not shorter or taller. And to view eyes like their own, well, that was a sight. As it happened, Les had the same eyes as Eve, a vibrant green with shades of honey and brown. However, this was where their physical looks met and nowhere else, it seemed.

Les noticed that Eve had some white shades among the fuschia and purple hairdo, but yet this filly seemed quite young, how was that so? They’d heard that somefillies get whitening or blackening hair earlier on, even browning sometimes.

“I’ve seen tons of them out here, they just don’t like me because I’m alone, and I’m the only lamia to find out here. But I know they’re here, this place is not lost to all creatures”.

“I have yet to see a single living soul of our ranks except you till now”, but in their heart the filly knew it was not true, not at all.

“If you say they are scared of you too for your powers, why not just hide them?” Les asked.

“I can’t, they come out without me controlling them. And the others don’t understand”.

“The others? You just said you’ve never met a-”

“I did bad things to them. I wanted them to forget who I was. I took over their minds, and I made them forget me. One way or another”.

“Why though? When you had a chance to be appreciated, why would you toss all that out for a fear?”

“Some things just happen, Lest, there is no explaining it”.

Lest shook their head in some disbelief. This was too strange.

“How did you make them forget?”

“Well...let’s say I know each and every soul’s deepest desires...like an x-ray...into the crevasses of the heart. I knew that the only thing a lost filly out here could long for, so far off from home, is to have companionship...so I give them that, and something more, and then let them off as they slowly misunderstand what had happened and it becomes something of a lost dream”.

“You...huh?”

“I mind control them, Lestiuh. I make them bend to my will and forget who I am. I kiss and hug them and do all I want to them, and they enjoy every bit of it, not because of the spells, but because those who come out here are lonely, and they forget that they need others, so...if they get as far lost out as these woods or the far plains, I remind them what they’re missing or giving up on too easily”.

“Do you screw them?” Lestriuh was extremely exact.

“I-”

“Also it’s Lestriuh with an r, just saying”.

“Heh um…”

“Well?”

“Yeah”.

“I don’t know how to feel about this, I had always wondered why the adventurers out here had been scared of me, but I had always assumed it was because I was different...maybe it’s because of you”.

“No, they don’t remember anything. They go home to their families and friends happy and relieved, and feeling back into their normal worlds and lives. Satisfied, and all I feel is empty, like they were a bottle and I drank from them, to steal their love”.

“But is that what you really want?”

“No, I want them to accept me, but how can they? I’m not like them….in more ways than one”.

“Well, I’m not like the fillies or the merfillies or spiders or even other lamias, which I’ve yet to more than hear of...but I know you can do the right thing sometimes. You don’t have to steal love when you could give it out”.

“And how that would work?” Eve sat on the ground, upset.

“For all the hate I saw in those strangers, who ran from me, there were yet some still who were nice, and I was nice to them back, and I soothed their worries, and fed them if they were hungry. I thought about it, I could have done bad things to them do, enchant and hypnotize them by singing and swirling, or suffocate them and then have my way with them while they were out...but I didn’t. I wanted them to feel better than me, and I didn’t want to add to anyone’s misery”.

“You’re a good soul then. I’m not”, the filly shook their head.

“There’s something else, though. I’m not exactly...common...down there”. Les explained.

“What’s that supposed tomean...you don’t…”

“I’m what’s called a Hermes”, Les explained. “I’m both female and male at once, and it’s one of many things that scared even the friendliest of the nicer visitors and hitchhikers here. I wish I hadn’t let them known for the ones who had gotten close, but I thought they wouldn’t mind...at some point I realized they would, so I just stopped talking about it.

“Everyone deserves love...well, everyone who’s pure at heart anyway”.

The lamia lifted a front hoof to the filly’s face. “Even a bad soul can be changed, and still needs someone out there for them. It’s not all lost yet”.

“It is”, and Eve was upset again and looked down, but the hoof, however intrusive, moved down with it gently and did not let go.

“You can stop doing what you’re doing, and accept yourself. You are better than you think you are”.

“I don’t care”, Eve began, “I just use everyone to protect myself. How can I recover from that?”

“You can start by not using me. I’d appreciate that”. Les replied, a slight hint of humor in their voice, but their face serious behind the bangs that grew over their features.

“You see...I’m like you too. I’m intersex, that’s what it’s also called, apparently. Nofilly likes that, for some reason, or if they did, they saw it as something to make me a toy, not a fellow life like them. So I never felt it was right. There were maybe one or two who considered it, but at some point I was so scared I shooed or sexed them away too”...

“Every difference is matched by a big enough spirit to look over any negatives and see the good things. And you may have lived an evil Eveily until now, but that is not who you are on the inside, and you can change it”.

“Well, maybe I don’t want to change it. I like it. I like being different”, Eve protested.

“You like being unwanted, then?”

“I like being in control of things. I like nobody telling me what to do, and that I can make anyone’s darkest and most slovenly, dirty desires come true”.

“There’s nothing so bad about sex, really”.

“You’re right, it’s about the power, not the sex. I just want to dominate, to have things over everycreatyre I meet”.

“Well, what I meant is that these desires are not ‘dirty’, they’re natural and so they’re good”, Les smiled, running out of ways to be comforting.

“They’re bad just like me, and I’m fine with that because I’m bad, but to others, they are sick things to hide away, and I’m the only one who can let them out for them”.

“If that’s true, aren’t you really doing them a favour then?”

“No, I’m taking advantage of their weaknesses and treating them like toys right back, doing what I want. I’m different from them, I’ll always be different, and I’m proud of it, shame or no shame. I can’t change that and I want to be different”.

“I don’t think you want to be a bad person though”, Les breathed, “Maybe you just want others like you out there, who will accept you”, and it was at this point that Les realized that sentence probably meant more than it should have.

Also, it was so odd how Les’s voice was so different than Eve’s, even though they followed the same medium alto-tenor scale.

One voice was smooth and hollow, the other was scratchy but warm.

“I want that, but I won’t ever have it. And don’t you think they’ll let me, nor will you. You’re different from me too. I don’t want you around me any more than anyone else, if we’re to breach this subject again”, was the sharp reply, hiding tears of frustration and hate behind it.

“You are a troubled fellow, a lost individual maybe, but you’re not a lost cause, lest you choose to be one”, Les said soothingly, a honey in their voice.

“Ha, Lest”, Eve croaked, “Good one”.

“I think we’d better talk about this another time”, Lestriuh went on. “Maybe we can speak again tomorrow, or in two days? We can meet out here, and have a picnic or something, a small lunch. I’ll bring some fresh seeds and nuts and soft cracking-rocks from the river nearby”.

“Actually, I’d like that right now. Today, even. Now that I’ve finally said this to someone other than the animals, I feel like I need to talk more…”

THE LIGHT IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD AND THE DARK IS NOT ALWAYS BAD

The picnic looked splendid, but it hid a sense of squalor in it, both lamia and filly were poor enough creatures, living alone in nature and depending on the generosity of strangers passing by and of animals to survive. It was poor, but a peaceful sight.

“I know you are feeling upset about things, but maybe you don’t need to change who you are to find someone who will accept you””, Lestriuh began while cutting into a grand parsnip. Slicey slicey.

“It’s no use”, Eve gloomed, “I’m objectively bad and it doesn’t matter what you say, I’m not forgivable and anyway I don’t seek it. I seek it for others who have fallen for me, and who deserve better and maybe have done or desired wrongs themselves”.

“Mm?”

“You see, I can do more than hypnotize like you can. I can create entire illusions, and real things too, with my eyes, or with my body and its many seeds of life”.

“And yet you use this power for bad, not for good. Why is that?”

“Because, I don’t relate to the others. I want to, I want to be part of them, but so long as I’m a spirit of the woods, some enchantress and tempter, I can’t do a thing. They see not a filly but a wizard, some wicked one too”.

“Not all of what you’ve said is so wrong, and maybe others can come to terms to like it, or at least tolerate it if nothing more. You can still be accepted”...

“Says you, and anyway, as evil? How…”

“All I can say is that you need practice in being sociable again. Clearly, you’ve been out of it far too long and have been using these spells to cheat yourself of real friendships”.

“Maybe I’m just a horny child, that’s all. An adult who knows not better than to seek out target after target”.

“You don’t seem like a child to me, more like someone so old that they feel their life is over and have given up on change or improvement or moving on, but that’s not what it is. You are still young enough and you have time”.

“But I don’t care anymore. I don’t value anything. I just live...to live. I don’t know why I even bother. There’s nothing but basic pleasures and no more advanced understanding or feeling than that...I don’t know if there’s something out there to be seen, but it’s not for me”.

“How poetic, have you tried writing something out?” Lest replied with a goofy grin.

Eve held back a temptation to slap the snek. “No”.

“Well, perhaps we could do so after this”.

“I have some other writing to attend to. I found a ripped up book in the Magical Maze of the far Meadows, and I’ve been trying to decipher it all week”.

“Quite curious. Say, if we meet in the twilight hour, would you take me to your home and show me? I’d be so delighted to study this too. That maze holds endless mysteries”.

“I guess...if you want…”

THE MESSAGE IS IN THE MESSAGE

Prying apart pieces of paper, the two spent a quiet but sobering evening together. The talks of the day had not left either of them, and inside Les was hiding a lot of pain and anguish. It had been hard and perhaps unkind to talk down as such to Eve, even as they had been so aggressive about their actions as to merit it, it felt wrong. There was a need for some depth here, an intimacy between them so they could relate their woes. Lest had felt so many of these same feelings as Eve, and had simply buried them away for the longest time, maybe forever. It had become best to just seal away any misgivings, until there was no fear or doubt or thought left, but a cloud of indifference and calm. It sounded good, until some hint or another of the old anxieties welled up again, and then it was terrible.

“I just wish you would let me do something to help you”, Les began.

“Surely you’re doing enough unfolding and, haha, laminating these files. I’ll be able to compile them into a solid work again in a few days’ time, but I have yet to begin actually reading any of them, they’re written in an unfamiliar language and I have to guess out a code and pattern”.

“But you think there even is one, that’s not just it is symbols or pure randomness?”

“I think nothing. I feel the words, and I feel something’s off with them. Just don’t know what, because I don’t know anything, really”.

“Don’t say that, you sound like a chipper individual the first time we met, you’re just down today and you’ll be right back up tomorrow. You beat yourself up over nothing, or at least none of the things that matter”.

“You almost made me want to do the same to you right now as to all those others,” Eve sighed, “Just tackle them down and forget the anger and sorrow, replace it with some hollow and cheap excuse for love”.

“I think you’ll find that love isn’t a bad thing if it has those connotations”, Les began-

“Do you speak from experience?” Eve glared, bright emerald in their eyes.

“No, I just...I think that if both or all parties want it, and it’s really mutual and even and fair, then it’s a good thing, everything from a quiet walk to a, well, quiet evening, or a loud one. Boisterous, even”.

“You don’t know a thing, then”.

“About you, or about life in general?”

“Both, really. I think you’re short-sighted, if you think you can be friendly to someone and act like you care, even though you don’t listen one second and you won’t respect a simple request, to not broach some topics”.

“I think you’re scared to let anything in, just like I am, and maybe some times these things SHOULD be broached”. Without really meaning to, Lestriuh had raised their voice a bit.

“So you think you’re better than me, huh? Is that it? Because you live your lonely life doing good things and being kind to others, you think you’re worth more to some third?”

“No, please, don’t be mad. I think your work with this stuff and all these little articles in your home are quite nice, and you are doing something for others in that sense”.

“You’re just a little lamia I met in the woods on a bright sunny day like out of a story for children, you’re not special and you’re not the first I will talk down to nor the last!”

“Well, if that’s what you want, maybe I should hypnotize you first, and kick you out of your own home into the cold!”

“You wouldn’t DARE!” Evelyn was now looking animal-like, a few creepers growing out of their spine and back.

“I would, because you take for granted what you have and don’t appreciate what you haven’t lost. You can still change who you are, but you choose not to and degrade yourself instead. You can be righteous, and not have to hate yourself!”

“I’m a lost cause, and I have no respect for someone who pretends elsewise! You can deny it all you want, deluded as you are, but you’re every bit as lonely and alone as me and you just hide it by taking the higher moral ground!!”

“Fine, if that’s all you see, I guess I’ll let you have that ground, and just excuse myself and leave! Good night xir!”

“Good night, asshole. And don’t come back tomorrow…”

NOT EVERYTHING GOES SMOOTHLY THE WHOLE WAY

But Evelyn was upset at themself. This had been a mistake, sure, but it had been a unique and new mistake. It was not right to let this go so bitterly and hostilely, especially since the two lived so close to each other. This hadn’t been the story they’d expected at all, but it was too true, a depressing reality, almost. It turns out that some people just didn’t get along, and that some changes weren’t meant to happen, and some souls could not be salvaged after a point or a certain number of times.

But yet, Evelyn found themselves walking into the woods late at night, nonetheless, searching for the only person who had ever come close to being a true friend to them, someone they could maybe perhaps trust for once. Well, in a sense, nonetheless. There were other people out there and other choices, but they had been dismissed, tossed out, because they were impure. As much as it burned inside to admit it, Eve envied Les’s purity. Behind the upset hair was someone who seemed content with life, and had accepted their lot in it.

Well, little did they know.

Les was out too, they had no idea where Eve’s cottage was but hadn’t been searching for it. They didn’t care, even though in part they wanted to find it. They were just...out, exploring anywhere.

But suddenly, a cave entrance. And a bright light and sound, and then there was dust and rubble. An earthquake had happened. How? This was a floating island they lived on, wasn’t it? How exactly could such a situation occur?

And in the distance sounded some yelps. Lestriuh hurried toward the source, ready to head underground when needed. Nothing mattered, but at least for some it did.

Evelyn turned to find a dark patch of the woods which gave in to a wide and seemingly bottomless ravine. A trip into there would crush anyone no matter how soft they were, unless somehow a beanstalk could be grown out Eve’s hooves to catch their own fall. But the yelps had come from this way, where were they? They were distinctly feminine in tone, a lot higher than the sound of Eve’s own voice which had begun to seem androgynous and dull somehow.

But flying into Les’s face came the filly full force, and the two smacked into each other as the edge of the abyss, the pit below, and a waterfall raging at full force next to them.

The ground gave way.

And then collapse, and a long fall.

IT’S NOT ABOUT FEELINGS, IT’S ABOUT TEAMWORK

Co-reliance. Co-dependence. It was a scary last thought to have but it was what Lest was having. Lest depended so much on the good words of the few who had accepted them, that they could not stand to live without it. And the fact this well trickled down to nothing was not to go without notice. Because after the last night, with this new face, Lest had been seriously upset, but at the same time they felt nothing, at least at some level within. But Eve had been the cold one, it seemed, so angry and content to live with hate for others and disdain for themselves. Yet, Lest felt like the villain here instead.

What use was it thinking of these things when they were both falling and hurtling to their doom?

But some thought of magic gave way, and Lest turned to Eve and offered something in their eyes to one another. Second chances. Amends.

And so, they whipped out enough magic from their mirrors to slow down and stop the full force of the fall, gently coming to rest on a platform. Except they missed the ledges, both of them, and were dangling for dear life on shrubbery and vines.

Lestriuh offered up their tail. “Grab here, I can pull myself up by my fores”.

“No”, Eve said, “Don’t even bother. I’ll just stomp on it. Leave me off”.

“Grab my damn tail or you’re going to slip right off”.

“You forget, I can save myself”, and Eve began to grow out branches and vines and fresh saplings and tenders to get footholds on the ledge in the center of the gorge. But it was not enough.

“Hey, you wanna give me one of those, since you have so many?” Lest exclaimed.

“What, so you want to hurt me too?” Eve asked. “You’ll tear me right off, and it hurts, that is one thing I still can feel”.

“I want to save you, dumbass, and I’m trying here, okay!” Les grunted, trying to lift themselves but lacking the upper body strength to do so.

“YOU are just trying to save YOURSELF”, Eve accused, “You don’t care and you aren’t thinking”.

“How dare you”, Lest replied. “Now grab on and give me an arm or we’re both dead meat here”.

“Ugh, why must you use such vulgar words”. Eve gave in at last and lended out some tendrils and lengths to Les. Then, they latched onto their tail. Tight.

Effectively throwing themselves over and up onto the platform, they stood there a second, shaken, and confused. It was anger and perhaps staleness, but reluctantly they had saved each other. Now, was time to get back up.

Eveily looked at the great height before them. No beanstalk could save them here.

“If I promised you that I would let go or help you, and then didn’t, what would you think of me?” they asked.

“I’d think you were a terrible person”, Les replied simplistically.

“I am one”, Eveily spat back. “Now let’s get up here already before it gets cold and we freeze to death, dork”.

“Look who’s using the harsh words, now, fuckface”.

“Fuck you”.

“You as well”.

But despite regrets and anger, and without ever explaining to one another why they had come this way each, having long forgotten the yelp in their efforts to save themselves and each other, just maybe, they found a way out. It took a lot of hard work, a clever hoof here, a wise wrapping green stalk there, but they made it. Slither and all. It was cold outside, and slimy, and as they reached the top it began to rain. And rain. And pour.

“Well, thanks, I guess”, was all Les could muster. “Now bye”.

“Wait”, Eveily said. “Is that it?”

“I think so.”

“But...I thought you meant what you said down there”.

“I said what I needed to get us out of this crater. Nothing more, nothing less”, was the answer.

“Always so cryptic, and so long”, Eveily shook their head.

“It’s how I am, I can’t talk much better, nobody to talk to often since they just scamper off like you do, albeit less forcefully”.

“I thought you meant what you said down there, again”.

“I meant nothing. And that’s just it, it’s nothing. I don’t care. Please, go home to your nice warm shed, I have a cave to return to and lie in”.

“Yeah, well, seal your own grave that way, partner”.

“I ain’t your buddy, nor your partner, buddy” and the lamia slithered off into the night, a swick trail of whatever it was that reptiles kept on them trailing off.

GRADUALLY, ACCEPTANCE, IF NOT MORE THAN THAT

It was a few weeks, maybe months even, down the road when they saw each other again, for realsies. After several short talks and encounters, and one failed hike on a day doomed to hail, the filly and lamia met inside the lamia’s home this time, the winter setting on the land slowly, and them wanting to not freeze their furs off and keep the heat inside.

“Why are you here?” Lestriuh asked.

“I want to...talk with you”.

“I don’t”.

“But you said before you were open to”.

“That was then, and this is now. Please leave me be, I don’t want you here. Seeing as nothing I did was good enough, and you repaid me so poorly”.

The filly shook their head. “All I wanted was for you to accept me”.

“And all you did was give me reason to believe you can’t be accepted anywhere, or even trusted. You scared me off like you scare everyone off, and then you wonder why you’re alone”.

“I wanted you to help me, to change me, maybe. You seemed so eager at first, and then you just got rude.”

“It’s not about me. You are like this to everyone and you won’t look in the mirror long enough to face it”.

“What mirror!? They live in their castles and we have hovels, what mirror?”

“No need to yell, it’s not proving any point”, Les sighed.

“But I’m upset now, you’re just not only insulting me, you know, too. You’re insulting everyone out theres who’s like me, and I can tell you for sure there are some. There are lots of evil fillies, and they still deserve a chance, that’s what you said. And this is a safe place, a safe land, where you should and can trust everyone, even the darkest and most unforgiving faces you meet”.

“But I don’t trust anyone, I’m just nice at the surface, maybe unlike you, maybe like you, doesn’t matter. I sit here inside and when out there I hope for them to accept me too, and most often they don’t even if I meant in no way to scare them, just wanting to state facts. I don’t mean to offend, but I frighten with my fangs and my eyes, and with how rational and cold I seem to their fluttery ways. I just pretend through all of it each and every day, and what can you say to that? Do you do that? Do you even talk to any of your victims before you wrap them in your arms? Or is there no heart left in you at all?”

“What I know is that I’m still worse and better than you at the same time, and you won’t win that contest with me, smarty”.

“You think, I’m the smart one here, when you have to come up with all these plans, and you take everything on a second time, and speak like you’re king and queen and princess and prince of the land”.

“I know that tone and I don’t have to listen to it a second longer than I want to. You don’t even know when I’m bludgeoning you with sarcasm, telling you to stay away like everyone else, and just let me be”. They were sounding desperate now.

“All I know is, we have a lot in common, but that’s not a bad thing”.

“It isn’t good either, it’s neutral, it doesn’t matter, and anyone can think anything anyway”. Eveily stepped back from a hug that Lestriuh had subtly reached out to give with their tail.

“I don’t want anywhere near you”, Eveily concluded.

“Nor do I...but still, there’s always a second chance”.

“You blew every chance I gave you”.

“And you did the same!”

“I’m the one here who’s in the right, not you!”

“It’s funny how you’re always trying to be right about being wrong…”

“Yeah, they have a name for it”, Evelyn said, “who can be the biggest victim or the worst loser. I just forgot the word for it”.

“The point is, you were in the wrong. Over and over. You kept doing this, and I kept forgiving you, even as every hurtful word you said sticks in my head like a dull knife”.

“What an image. And you stand here, constantly hurting right back. Does it really matter who you take stabs at, me, yourself, anyone, if all you ever do is take stabs? Don’t you have any mercy?”

“It’s the greater world that matters, Eve”, Les muttered darkly. “Who are you? Nobody. Who am I? Nobody”.

“You’re not nobody, you still have a chance”.

“Still fighting it, I see”.

“You have potential, if you’d just work harder”.

“Wha that’s what you told me! Lest accused, growing hot in the face. “Who d’you think you are, anyway?”

“I know it’s over for me, you’re not taking advantage for anything you have. A possible family where the lamia live. The fact for sure there are others like you. A life, not an imprisonment and a curse on your head. Some ability to actually understand and feel”.

“And what’s there about it? I have no choices, I have to do what I’m told because I just don’t know better, how’s that to it?”

“Nobody tells you anything except in your own head, get over it”.

“They tell me lots of things”..

“Not a single stranger you’ve met until now had told you anything so much as half as bad as what you’ve said around me. You disparage everyone and value no one at all”.

“I value lots of people. Just, they don’t value me, and why should I care, when most of them say bad words and not a single one really cares for me?”

“There are nice a few of them, you just throw them all away, reject their attempts to be nice or at least commiserate. You don’t let them close to you at all”.

“I...I don’t want to. It’s not just anyone will do.”

“Well, whatever it is you’re searching, you won’t find it with this attitude”.

“I could say the exact same thing about you”.

“It’s real, what did you call it, FUNNY, isn’t it?” Evelyn choked.

“What is?” Les replied, some of the daggers in their eyes having turned into a fire. Did their eyes really glow or was it just a crafty illusion, like a jackal in the night, its orange vanishing away?

“It’s funny”, Eve continued, “that two people can be so similar yet so different, or vica versa, you know what that means”.

“It’s funny you fear that, or to even use the word “I”, or else you use it all too often”.

“It’s weird and strange to me that, every time I try to be nice, you think it’s fake and selfish”.

“It’s odd to me that you only are nice to me, and not to any of the people you claim to hurt, Evelyn”.

“Well, it’s bizarre that you think I’m always doing them bad things just because I speak out of turn or overstep a few bounds...I give them what they want, even if they’re upset at first, even if they don’t know it. Just because it seems low and wrong doesn’t make it so, and I don’t think it should”.

“You’re scared to participate with them, when you still have room to, you still have some meaning for yourself. You lost your family twice now, but at least you can blend in, and seek some familiarity out”. Les rasped.

“Why is it so hard for you to just follow your own advice already? If you’re so good at everything, why aren’t you doing better for yourself too? Don’t you think you matter?”

“No, and I won’t matter, because I’m never going to find people like me. Where are all the lamias gone?”

“Where are all the...whatever this is, where are they gone?”

“You’re looking for a people that aren’t there, some identity past yourself, a community, some sense of belonging, maybe”.

“Les”, Eve gasped, “do you finally understand, that community matters, and you can’t just live for yourself or pretend to be happy when you’re not, just apathetic?”

“Why should I care?”

“Because that community values you, those people who you are friendly to and who are friendly back, they matter. And if you tried, maybe they’d stick by you, you know”.

“They’d never want me, and it doesn’t matter because I don’t want them anyway. I just do what I need to do, go through the motions, and blend in seamlessly”.

“Seamless so you think, ha. Sticking out like a sore horseshoe, or maybe a rattling toy”.

“Why don’t you practice yourself these things, again?”

“Because every time someone is nice to me, I do the same thing as before”.

“And you think they don’t care about you, before you even give them a chance to?” A furtive eyebrow from the lamia, who had coiled themselves into a pile of rubber.

“Who knows what should be thought”, was the conclusion Eve arrived to.

“You have to make a choice. And maybe it’s too hard for you, but you do. You need to not suspect them”.

“And you need to be real with them! And tell them how you feel!”

“I can’t” was the mutual reply.

“Well, maybe we can work on it together, just for practice”, Eve eventually offered.

“I would be the one to say that”, Les replied. “But I thought I didn’t matter”.

“It’s odd how you’re nice to me just to say either you or I or both of us don’t matter”.

“Isn’t it the truth?”

\- - -

And there passed a long period of time, who bothered to measure, that every few nights Lestriuh would come to Evelyn’s cottagey home, or Evelyn to Lestriuth’s cavey outscapes and backs, and in these various trenches they practiced being nice to others.

Over time, both had realized there was indeed a chance for people to mean well, that fears of things were often irrational and rooted in bad pasts. Sometimes, a bad habit is hard to shake alone, but with a pair who have common goals, it becomes easier to work through these problems.

There was no harm in giving chances to strangers, of assuming things to be well rather than ill, even if it meant oversharing sometimes.

But the fun thing was that as they spent little time on each other, the lamia and the filly were not just slowly making friends and better with other creatures, they had begun to appreciate each other too. The vile language disappeared slowly, and the upset was replaced even as some wounds didn’t quite heal with time, or ever at all. What was to be buried could be forgotten, and it was almost serene. Almost.

Because at some point, the peace had turned to a puzzling thing. A mood. Neither could describe it well, because to talk about difficult things too much or too long was to go back to the screaming matches and the silent treatments from before, and empty apologies after, but at some point, they realized, past many dates and groups and works over time, past a job or two, that they liked each other as well.

And nobody else had to be involved this time.

It was a hard step to imagine, but it was one that existed, at least in hope and in heart, what was left anyway of them. Both hearts. Because one night, cozy outside and watching the stars in the fields, far from the forest’s danger but also from its safe houses, Eve turned over to Les and kissed them. And it was pleasant in the world.

“You said you’d never take advantage of someone again”, they rolled drolly.

“It’s not an advantage over you if you want it, silly”, was the soft, if low, reply.

And looking at the stars, and at one another, they turned slowly towards each other, and did something they had never been comfortable doing, an embrace. A long, deep hug, that both had needed and that went way deeper than what should have been possible.

If you looked really deep, maybe one of the two had tears in their eyes. Maybe even both, but it’s hard to say, looking from down up here, and that’s asking a lot of anyone. They were sure they were a package now, together not an object, but a couple and a bond.

And slowly, some morbid curiosity between them that had unfolded since the day they had met so long ago, began to unfurl as they felt each other’s bodies, and began to relax and melt in each other’s softness and warmth, through the cold of trotten hooves, and plants, and scales and all.

“I love you”, they said to one another in unison. And this time, it felt right to say that to someone, Eve thought, and Les thought it was finally the person to say it to, really, and to mean it.

And then things got a bit heated.

A few awkward grabs, some misunderstanding of biology classes neither soul had ever taken, and tries to pull down and feel.

The interesting thing about hermaphrodites is, not only do they have two sets of genitals, they are both complete sets as well sometimes, and what you get is a lot of pleasure zones.

But pleasure can be anywhere from the tip of your head to the bottom of your tail if you’re in the right zone, and of course spots are stronger than others, like between and under arms and hooves stretched out, or around the longs of backs, but anywhere the unknowing and unsure hooves and greens felt, they felt with good intention and that was all that was needed, really.

“The best thing about two hermaphros”, Eve whispered, “is that we can fuck each other and be fucked by each other at once”.

“Sounds like you’ve tried this before”, Les smiled.

“I’ve tried everything, but not with you”.

I can really only describe this scene as like a Gordian’s knot, you know. It’s a strange thing of nature, how sometimes things that can seem so wrong can become so right, even if plans were meant to go otherwise.

And parts, too.  
Slowly gliding their members over each other’s rising tits, and towards their opposite’s waiting gapes, they slid back and forth, rubbing it in.

“Can I ask something?”

“Why are you ruining it, ahhh” Eve protested. “What?”

“Sorry ‘bout the atmosphere, but...can you turn around?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t play dumb, you know what I mean”.

So to warm up engines that hadn’t been used in a while, they went down on each other. It was interesting, alternating between sucks and licks and blows and dries, almost musical in a way, like playing a silly percussion instrument that had no business being so bloated and complicated. But in a good way, whatever mess was in their head wasn’t in their groins, that’s for sure.

But they turned back around to face each other, and licked and cleansed and dried each other’s lips and faces off, tongues matching and swirling together in some gentle harmony...or an attempt at it, at least.

Feeling their way back down, two careful hooves, one from each, reached down to stick it in on either end, and together it was something magical, like a four-way-square of sorts.

Who was pushing first and who was pulling? It was really quite hard to tell.

But did it matter?

The point was, they were enjoying each other, not themselves for once, but each other, and that’s what counts, at the end of the journey. Maybe the real friends are the ones we fight along the way.

“It’s strange, feeling someone else on me and in me”, Les muttered, “I always had done it to myself”, they said, releasing a long kiss.

“If that’s special to you, you have no idea what’s coming out there”, Eve chuckled. “You’d best fasten up, babe”.

“I never thought this would feel so good”.

“How long were you waiting for this moment then?”

“I don’t know. I never expected it to be with you”.

“Well, there’s a first for everything”.

“You’re my everything, baby, you know that”.

“And you are my everything too, but too much talk, more action” Eve giggled.

They pumped and pumped and pumped.

If either of them got pregnant, who was going to carry the child? It was interesting to think about, just a little bit. But for sure, they’d raise them together, anyhow.

And as the white of the moon and the stars began to fade and give away, their lives changed and became stuck to each other forever, as they sticked themselves boldly with mountains and rivers of love. Or the juice of it, anyway.

“We’ll be there for each other”, Eve concluded.

“Always”, Les replied.

THE END


End file.
